The New Dad Blog

Sleepless in Pacific Grove

We are back from California now, we arrived home just before midnight last night - two days early. The retreat was great but exhausting. Jude really only had one good night's sleep while we were there, most nights he was up for an hour or two, sometimes more. And being in the same room as him meant that we were all up together.

This lack of sleep didn't seem to impact him that badly. He still had energy during the day and he napped pretty well - it was just the nights that were the problem. Even so, it was great having him there. He received so much loving from everyone - everywhere we went people wanted to engage with him. He seemed to love the attention, flashing his cute toothless grin regularly. There were over 800 people at the retreat and Jude was the youngest of all of them.

Right outside the door to our room was a flight of stairs which Jude became very excited about. Marcy was playing with him in the corridor one day and turned around for a second or two and looked back and Jude had climbed up three stairs. So we realized he can climb stairs now. It was a fun activity which we did several times throughout the trip, and by the end of the trip he was negotiating the stairs with ease. Today, back home he made it up the stairs here for the first time.

Another change this week we noticed was Jude starting to imitate us more. It was actually pretty funny a couple of days ago when I was eating dinner and I looked over at Jude and he was pretending to chew just like me. Other times we would slap our hands on our legs and he would join in with us, too. And when people wave to him it looks like he is trying to wave back.

We did get some free time to do a bit of recreation. We visited a state park right on the water just south of Carmel where we took this photo (taken with my wonderful new iPhone). The weather was spectacular every day we were there. Around 68-72 degrees and bright sunshine. We were sad to leave but we are very relieved to be home. We can finally get caught up on the sleep we have been missing out on the past 8 days.

Back and Sleep Deprived in Denver

We arrived back safely on Friday afternoon, and Marcy and I managed to be awake for most of the 40-hour day that was Friday May 4th. The last few days in Sydney were great. The weather improved dramatically and we managed to have some great days at the beach and wandering around the harbour. One of the highlights for me was doing a walk with my good friend, Enio, around the harbour from Georges Head to Balmoral. We went through some beautiful terrain and had amazing views of the city and the harbour.

Then all too quickly it was over and we were on a plane back to Denver. The photo here is of Jude in the bassinet United Airlines provided us - as you can see he found the accommodation to be quite suitable. He was great on the whole trip back, he didn't sleep as much as on the way down but he still had 6-7 hours of sleep and was in a good mood when he was awake. And then on the trip from LA to Denver where I thought he might have been really sick of plane travel by then, he was fine.

Now that we are back though, it is a different story. Jude is definitely suffering from jet-lag. Both of the last two nights, even though we have put him bed around 8pm, he has woken up every half hour or hour until 2am (which is 6pm Sydney time, the time we put him to bed down there). So, Marcy and I have been very sleep deprived since returning home. We hope that he will be back to normal tonight.

One change that happened while we were in Sydney was his food intake increased dramatically. Before we left Jude was having 4oz of formula with every feeding, then all of a sudden in Sydney he was cranky all day one day and the reason was he was hungry. We upped his normal feedings to 6oz and even 8oz a couple of times. He is a growing boy we can tell. While we were down there he grew out of size #2 diapers and had to move on to the next size. We even noticed the difference in the United Airlines bassinet from the way down to the way back.

Other changes in Jude this week is that rolling over became a regular occurrence. He rolls over on to his stomach but then he can't quite get back on to his back, I am sure that will come soon. He now enjoys playing Peek-a-boo, Marcy played with him while we were waiting for takeaway lunch one day and he just laughed every time he saw Marcy's face. He is also much more smiley now with strangers - he was wooing some of the flight attendants on the way home.

More Sleep (for Everybody)

For the last two nights Jude has slept nine hours straight. We put him to bed at around 7pm and he didn't wake up until 4am. Even then we brought him in to bed, Marcy breastfed him a while and he fell back asleep for a couple more hours. While we have always considered ourselves lucky that Jude is a pretty good night sleeper, it is great news for us that he can now go nine hours.

The other changes this week that we have noticed is around alertness. We took Jude for a walk a couple of days ago and he was looking around at everything with fascination. Before we would use walks as a way to get him to sleep, but now he finds them stimulating. Car rides are still a good way to get him to sleep, although even that takes longer than before it seems.

We have had two babysitters this weekend which has felt like a luxury. Friday night Marcy and I went out for dinner to Thai Basil, our local Thai restaurant. Then earlier today we went and saw a movie (The Namesake - excellent!) at the Esquire. It was a beautiful day, so we rode our bikes down there. It felt just like old times - we used to do that so often on weekends, but this was the first time we have ridden our bikes and the first time we have been to the movies since Jude was born.

A Couple of Breakthroughs

A couple of major breakthroughs this weekend. Lon & Connie (Marcy's parents) came to visit and so Marcy and I were able to have a date - our first since Jude was born over six weeks ago. We went to Tula, an excellent restaurant in Cherry Creek. It was a bit hard for Marcy, but I loved going out and reconnecting with her.

But the most important breakthrough came last night. We were home from the restaurant at 7:30pm and then we fed Jude and put him to bed around 8:30pm. He didn't wake up until 4:40am - over 8 hours of non-stop sleep. Now, we don't expect this to happen every night from now on, but it was great that he was able to do it once. It means regular nights of relatively uninterrupted sleep are not far away. We will see.

A New Chapter in Sleep

Last night we decided to try and new sleeping approach with Jude. He has been sleeping in bed with us pretty much every night since we returned from hospital. After a lot of reading and some discussion we decided it was time for Jude to try and spend a night in his crib.

This really started yesterday morning when we decided to start a bit of a routine with Jude. We would feed him every 3 hours during the day, we would do some exercises to help his digestion, have some play time and then take him to his crib for a nap. It worked well during the day. The first time he was put in the crib he wasn't too keen on it, he cried a bit and didn't really sleep at all. But the next time we did it, he went to sleep right away and we ended up having to wake him for his feeding.

We thought it might take us the whole weekend to get him to sleep the night in his crib, but it was going fine, so decided to see what happened after we put him down at night. This was around 9pm, and he went to sleep right away. Marcy and I were excited, we felt like we were back to being a couple again - having the bed to ourselves. Jude slept through to 1:15am, woke up for a quick feeding, and then slept through until 5am. He woke for another feeding and went right back to sleep again. We had to wake him at 8:15am so he could eat again. What we thought might be a long transition from the bed to the crib, had happened in one painless evening.

Now, of course we don't expect every night to go this smoothly, but at least he is not completely against spending the night in his crib. In hindsight, we might have started this earlier, but the fact that he was sleeping well in our bed made us feel like there was no rush. All three us of were getting decent sleep, unlike so many other new parents we read about.

It feels good now to have started this schedule. Before this during the day Jude was sleeping anywhere. Sometimes in the pack 'n' play, sometimes in the car seat, sometimes on his bouncy chair, sometimes in our arms. Now, he will have some consistency and I think this will serve all three of us.